In 1968 the Gills were broken in health and in serious debt, but then God stepped into their lives in a real and awe-some manner. First, He he changed their thinking, and then He changed their lives.

This page is dedicated to those things the Lord has shown them about Kingdom Finances – Truths based firmly on the Word of God which have worked for them and will work for you.

It is their desire that wherever you are in your personal journey with the Lord, you can be encouraged to move into new realms with Him.

A Birthday Celebration

A.L. was turning 80 on July 24, 2015. Friends encouraged them to hold a birthday celebration. Invitations were sent out inviting friends to come and celebrate with them. The evening was recorded, mainly for them, but others have asked for these links, so they can enjoy it also.

We Reached our Goal ~ But Where Did It Begin?

Paid for with Love

As we have let you know in the past few weeks, A.L. and I have been believing that we could pay off the rest of our house loan by the time A.L. turned 80. We have almost no retirement and this goal was important to us.

There were two business investments we were involved in and we believed the money would come from them, but it didn’t. Our plans and our methods didn’t work.

Over the past five years, we have given in many special offerings believing for this money to come, but still we were about $25,000 short of enough to pay off the loan. A.L.’s birthday was fast approaching and we were trying to believe. But, and you know the feeling, our faith was getting very stretched.

A.L. was talking to a good friend, Pastor Henry Falany. After they hung up, Henry was talking to God about our goal and God said, “Henry, you can bring this money in for them.” Have you ever looked around at your own financial situation and said, “But God …” Those of you who know Henry know this is not what he did. He called Pastor Gary Hornsby and others and asked if they would join with him and help us celebrate our birthdays and bring this money in. Pastor Gary said, “Yes, you can count on us.” And he and Debbie offered the use of The Rivers Edge church for the meeting place. They also provided a delicious buffet of food for everyone.

We joined in and sent out letters and emails asking people to pray and be involved in our personal miracle. One of the first donations that came was from a lady we met years ago in Africa. She sent $1,000 and asked us to join with her in believing for her flat to sell. It had been on the market a long time, and within days, we received an email from her saying there was an interested buyer.

We received so many outpourings of love; we cannot even begin to tell of them. It would take too many pages… So many told us how we had helped them and what it had meant in their lives. Some thank you notes reminded us of events that happened over 40 years ago. Sometimes, because our ministry is all around the world, we have felt very “cut off” from people we have ministered with, and ministered to; people we love from many nations. Hearing from so many of these people the past few weeks has been so encouraging to us.

As the celebration night was ending, we were about $10,000 short of our goal. Both Henry and Gary said, “This is not the end. We believe the rest of the money is coming in.”

As we were leaving, a couple said, “We’ll be sending $1,000 by PayPal.” (Now we needed $9,000 more — still a large amount.) When we came home Saturday afternoon, A.L. went to the Post Office and there was one envelope waiting for us. It contained a check for $5,000! We were so moved by what God was doing that we couldn’t even talk. (Now the amount still needed to reach our goal was $4,000.)

The Falanys were ministering at The Gathering Place Sunday morning. During the morning service, God came in such an awesome way. We were praising the Lord, and soon the presence of God filled the front of the room. It seemed the time to give praise ti the Lord was over. The time to give worship was over, and we invited everyone to come to the front and stand in the presence of God. We all did just that and we began to receive from God — His blessing — His healing – whatever we needed.

Suddenly, an explosion for financial miracles happened! We were planning to take up an offering for the Falanys after they ministered, but God said, ‘Now,” and everyone gave. Henry took the mike and told everyone that we were still about $4,000 short of our miracle. He asked how much the offering for he and Grace was. He looked at the group and said, “That’s not enough!” Everyone laughed as he continued; “The Gills do not know this but Gracie and I have agreed that anything given to us this morning will go into our goal of helping them pay off their home. We want this amount doubled for them.” Everyone was still laughing and a spirit of hilarious giving came and the amount was doubled.

Then a couple said, “Henry, you and Grace, you are to keep this offering. It’s meant for you! Friday night when we asked God how much we could give in the Birthday Celebration, God said, “Wait.” This morning He just said we were to give whatever was needed to fulfill the goal.” A wonderful, heartfelt praise filled the room as eveyone rejoiced with us!

Later, sitting in the living room of our “paid for house,” Henry so aptly expressed what had happened; He said, “This house has been paid for with love.” The checks have to clear the banks. The charges and “I.O.U.’s” have to come in and that may take a couple of weeks, but in essence it’s a done deal!

A.L. and I are so humbled. We have experienced an outpouring of love from God’s people that we could never have imagined. We know many gave sacrificially, and we say thank you for every gift, large and small; together they created the miracle. We believe you have sown into a miracle for yourself, just as the first seed was for the selling of a flat.

Now, we are praying this prayer over every person who gave, and we ask you to join us in praying it over others who joined with you in helping us reach our “debt-free” goal.

Father, in the name of Jesus we thank You for what You have done!!! And we thank You for every person who has given so generously to make this miracle possible.

For each person who has given into this “debt-free miracle offering,” we ask, according to your Word, that you open the windows of heaven and pour out such blessings on them that they will not be able to contain it.

Because they have given, we don’t ask for a 30, 60 or even a hundred-fold return, but according to Deuteronomy 1:11 we make this decree:

“May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous
than you are, and bless you as He has promised you.”

We speak blessings on your family, on your health, on your vehicles, and on your homes. We speak that debts are supernaturally paid!

A Supernatural Offering

Joyce writes: It was an awesome Sunday morning in Sedona, Arizona. As A.L. was driving into town and to the church where we were going to minister, I saw Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He appeared so relaxed and was just watching us. There was so much love flowing from his eyes, that I have never forgotten that moment. During the worship that morning, I saw the Lion of the Tribe of Judah again. This time He was standing on the bluffs of Sedona, roaring over the valley. Then the pastor introduced us and we came forward to minister, but first God had another plan.

Listen to what happened! We were believing for our home to be completely paid for, and this was one of the opportunities God gave us to give into that dream. Listen

How could this miracle happen? Are there steps to a Financial Miracle?

How could this miracle happen? What were the steps to this Financial Miracle?

Our Personal Miracle

Debt is bondage. Debt is keeping many believers from moving into their God-given destinies. (We are not speaking of taking loans for business investments, but even these can be paid back early.)

Finances can be an exciting journey with God. Now God has supernaturally given us the money to pay off the note on our house.

What a joy and rejoicing that is to us! Many are rejoicing with us. They say it has given them renewed hope for their miracle.

However, a few are saying, “Why would God do that for you?” And even as we have thanked God, we have asked him why this miracle happened.

What we receive has much to do with what we are believing God for.

Where Does A Miracle Start?

As we have been thanking the Lord, we have gone back over many years. Now we are feeling a desire to share the truths we have learned about moving into God’s heavenly finances with others. Not because we are any kind of experts, but because these truths from God’s Word are working for us.

When we were first married we went to church with a lot of wealthy people. “God certainly doesn’t need our money,” we reasoned.

We joined other churches where the principals of tithing and giving were never taught, and we put a few dollars in the offering each Sunday.

I injured my back and there were a lot of medical expenses. Our charge accounts filled up.

Joyce’s sister was in an abusive marriage and she and her four children moved in with us, doubling our expenses.

My health broke. The doctor said I was going to die, and I was just 33 years old.

Why are we sharing this with you? Because we’ve been there. We’ve had bill collectors hounding us. We know what many believers are going through, and if sharing our story can help a few people change their thinking, and start believing, it’s worth it!

We thought we were strong Bible-believing Christians but everything was going wrong in our lives.

I Give Up

In 1968, one Sunday morning, I was too sick to go to church. I will always remember my prayer: “God, if you can do anything with what is left of my life, I give it totally, 100% to You. I make you the Lord of my life.”

When I gave my life to the Lord, He took over. Sick, dying, in debt, totally discouraged, I wasn’t giving Him much! But less then a week later, we moved from Houston, Texas, to California.

God came into our lives in a powerful way. He healed me, gave us new jobs, and a new home. He also began to speak to us about how we were handling money. We didn’t hear a sermon on the subject. We didn’t read a book. There was just an understanding about finances that came from God.

We saw interest in a whole new way. We pictured it like taking money, and lighting a match to it. We stopped buying anything that would cost us interest, and it was hard. But paying interest didn’t profit us! It was like pouring money down a drain.

Tithing with Abraham

After we moved, one of the first things God said was that He wanted us to start tithing, but we were also to give Him another 10% as an offering.

“What?” we asked. Wasn’t tithing for the Old Testament? Wasn’t it being “under the law?”

The first time a subject is mentioned in the Bible is always important. We find the first mention of tithing in Genesis 14 and 15.

Have you ever asked yourself, why God put the story of Abraham tithing to Melchizedek in the Bible? The Old Testament is not just a history book. It’s God’s truth for us today.

Let’s take a moment to read what Abraham’s reward for this first mention of “tithing” was.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless …

And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ”
…one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”

Interesting, this whole incident happened right after Abraham gave a tithe and this record of tithing was before the law was given. Tithing was explained in the Law, but it did not originate with the Law.

Malachi Three

It is sad how many of us try to ignore this scripture and explain how it couldn’t apply to us. God gives each of us free volition. We are free to choose not to tithe, but it might be good to consider what God says about it before we do.

The heart of Malachi 3 is in verses 8-12. First God gives us the problem; then the curses; and then the blessings of obedience.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say,

‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house,

and prove Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for

you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will

not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,

so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear

fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts;” And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,”
says the LORD of hosts.

The tithe belongs to the Lord. We can’t give him anything that already belongs to Him. We are stewards of what belongs to him.

In Luke we read:

“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken

together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same

measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

In 1968, Joyce and I decided to do what God was saying to us. We paid our tithe and then we gave another 10% as offerings. We were managing a Christian bookstore and being paid a percentage of the sales. The sales began to increase. They doubled what they had been when we took the store. We found more ways to give, it was exciting.

Did it just happen that the last time we paid interest to purchase a car was in 1969, and that we were able to pay off every credit card about then?

Bible verses, new to us, began to rule in our lives.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

“Owe no one anything except to love one another” Romans 13:8

Interest on our home

Surely, God did not mean we were not to pay interest on a home. After all, a house was an investment, we would argue to ourselves. But a dream was born that we would pay off our house.

We began to pay extra amounts each month when the payments were due. Since most of a payment is interest and just a little actually applies to paying off the principal, we could by paying extra each month, pay two, three, four, and even more months at a time. Making these extra payments to pay off our house became our goal in 1972.

Anaheim House

We had it figured out. We had a plan and we were diligently working the plan, but God intervened again. Our plan took discipline, perseverance, doing without, but it didn’t take faith.

God said we were to buy a beautiful, large 4,800 square foot home in Anaheim Hills. We argued. Our plan would work with the home we had. We couldn’t afford the beautiful home in Anaheim Hills. But God didn’t change His mind. We were to buy that house. It didn’t make sense.

It was unbelievable but the bank approved our loan and we were in the house. When we sold our house in Whittier, we had extra equity in it. (Remember those extra payments each month?) We made the down payment on the new house and were able to put money into savings.

I was Administrative Assistant to Pastor Ralph Wilkerson at Melodyland Christian Center. I took a second job as director of a home for abused children. This position would make our house payments. But after just a few weeks, the Lord made it clear to both Joyce and I that I was to resign the second job. I felt as though God had given us a crutch to make the move but as soon as it was done, He removed the crutch.

Now, we were making the monthly payments out of our savings. But in just a few short months our savings would be gone. What had happened to our reasonable, practical plans? What could we do?

A friend, an Economic Professor at a University, was praying with us when the Lord gave him a Word. “You do not have a financial problem. You have a faith problem.”

I was on my knees. I was studying God’s Word. I was spending time listening for God’s answer, and He was faithful.

But … we will have to continue our story in our next teaching on Living Debt Free.